[LINK] Budde and Ludlam believe the NBN will be sold to Telstra

[David Boxall]

Didn't someone once say that repeating behaviour in the expectation of a 
different outcome is a sign of mental illness?

<https://delimiter.com.au/2016/02/26/cheap-buy-budde-and-ludlam-believe-the-nbn-will-be-sold-to-telstra/>

> “We believe that there will be only one potential buyer for the 
> mesh/mess NBN and that will be Telstra, one of the most successful and 
> richest national telcos in the world,” the analyst wrote.
>
> Budde said it was his opinion that Telstra would not pay the full 
> value of the National Broadband Network, because of the complex 
> Multi-Technology Mix approach to rolling out the NBN that Malcolm 
> Turnbull imposed on the project as Communications Minister.
> ...
> “They will never pay the full price for the NBN and because of the NBN 
> mesh it is highly unlikely that any other company will pay such a 
> price for the infrastructure. It is even questionable if they will be 
> willing to pay the price of around the $27 billion price tag,” wrote 
> Budde.
>
> “So it will end up in a fire sale and because of its wealthy and 
> powerful position Telstra will be the white knight. It might pay a bit 
> above the fire sale price and incorporate whatever it can use into an 
> FTTH network that it will then proceed to build for Australia.”
>
> ... The whole point of the NBN — aside from to help get Stephen Conroy 
> and Kevin Rudd into Government — was to structurally separate 
> Australia’s telecommunications industry and split Telstra up so that 
> it couldn’t continue to strangle competition in the sector. Handing 
> Telstra huge chunks of NBN infrastructure will reverse that process.

Would Telstra build FTTH "for Australia"? I reckon it would cherry-pick 
some lucrative markets, ignoring the majority until government kicks in 
taxpayers' funds. Privatise profits; socialise costs.

-- 
David Boxall                    |  Dogs look up to us
                                |  And cats look down on us
http://david.boxall.id.au       |  But pigs treat us as equals
                                                    --Winston Churchill